Axa Health has issued refunds to customers after services were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic but has not disclosed how much those refunds were worth.
As part of the process it has also donated smaller refund sums to two charities, Cancer Research UK and Maggie’s, but has not disclosed these amounts.
The insurer said the process had been independently verified by Grant Thornton.
Like many other private medical insurance (PMI) providers, Axa Health pledged to refund customers any extra profits made as a result of not being able to provide services during the pandemic when many private hospitals were taking on urgent NHS work to help cope with the crisis.
Completed in July
The insurer confirmed to Health & Protection that it fulfilled reimbursement to customers as part of its Customer Promise in July.
“We committed to return any exceptional profit made during the period January 2020 to December 2021 to our customers,” it said.
“This commitment came in anticipation of the Covid-related disruptions to customers in accessing private care. These refunds, having been independently verified by Grant Thornton UK LLP, are now complete and members have received their rebate via BACS transfer or cheque.
“This excludes large corporate groups, for whom we have been arranging refunds on a separate basis since earlier this year.”
The insurer added that as part of the Customer Promise process, it had also made donations to Cancer Research UK and Maggie’s utilising the smallest, unrefundable, amounts.
“The minimum set amount for refunds is £2 by direct debit and £5 by cheque with all amounts smaller than this donated directly to the two organisations,” it continued.
“Any refunds under these amounts have been combined and split equally between the two charities and will help fund much needed research and support for those living with cancer.”
When asked by Health & Protection the insurer said it was not disclosing any figures about the refunds.
PMI refunds near £220m
Four other insurers – WPA, The Exeter, Bupa and Aviva – have already made refunds totalling almost £220m to their affected customers.
WPA issued rebates in April and June 2020 of around £3.7m each. The amount was equivalent to around 40% of monthly premium for all customers on both occasions.
Last year Bupa returned £125m in premiums to almost all eligible customers and is keeping a further potential fund on hold which could run into tens of millions of pounds.
The Exeter returned £5.3m to members in February which equated to an average of £346 per policy or two months of premium.
Aviva announced in June it is returning £81m to its PMI customers, with the payments amounting to around six weeks’ worth of premiums for individual customers and about seven weeks’ worth for SME schemes for those covered throughout the whole period.
Freedom Health Insurance has not offered any refunds and said it offered payment breaks in line with Financial Conduct Authority guidelines.
Vitality has also not offered any refunds, but in July 2020 said it reduced premium increases to recognise the lower claims risk exposure and it expected this to impact future pricing.
